|
About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe |
|
|
Global warming could hurt salmon fisheries in Pacific Northwest mongabay.com April 2, 2007
Using two climate change models, particularly suited to the Pacific Northwest, a team of researchers led by James Battin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center projected the impact on salmon populations and their habitat in the Snohomish River Basin. They found that air higher temperatures will warm rivers and causes changes in rain and snowfall patterns, degrading key salmon habitat. "Higher air temperatures are likely to increase water temperatures, which could be harmful to salmon during the spawning, incubation, and rearing stages of their life cycle," the authors wrote. "Warmer temperatures also lead to earlier snowmelt and to a lower proportion of precipitation falling as snow.,, [leading] to elevated winter peak flows, which scour the streambed and destroy salmon eggs," they continued. "Less snowpack results in lower flows in summer and fall, reducing the amount of available spawning habitat and further increasing water temperatures."
Overall the researchers project a 20-40 percent decline in Chinook populations by 2050. They warn that their estimates are conservative since they don't account of for the impact of rising sea levels The researchers say that the greatest impact of warming climate will be on watersheds at the snow line. As such, and noting that few restoration projects to date have taken into account the possible effects of climate change, they argue that habitat restoration at lower elevations is likely to be more effective that efforts at higher elevations. The authors say these efforts could reduce projected salmon mortality to around 5 percent. "Habitat restoration can play an important role in offsetting the effects of climate change, although our results suggest that most expected climate impacts cannot be mitigated entirely" CITATION: James Battin, Matthew W. Wiley, Mary H. Ruckelshaus, Richard N. Palmer, Elizabeth Korb, Krista K. Bartz, and Hiroo Imaki. "Projected impacts of climate change on salmon habitat restoration". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 3. Comments? News options Liquid error: Template not found languages/english/includes/x/_98.liquid
Tags: climate science climate change endangered species extinction and climate change biodiversity Fishing Fish rivers united states environment green News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 
Photos HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
